Page 56 of Just Like in the Movies
“You sure? It’s not going to hurt your reputation if you have a child outside of wedlock.”
“I’m sure. I’ve asked him to marry me twice in the past two months. We haven’t talked about kids in years, but we always planned to have them.”
She sighed and checked her phone again. “Okay. Let me think about how to deal with it. Will you be getting married right away or are you going to wait until after the baby comes?”
“I don’t know how Lew feels about it. We’re going to talk tonight.”
“I’d recommend you wait until after, in terms of the optics of it. You rush into a marriage now, with a baby on the way, and it’ll either look like he trapped you or like you fucked up and now you’re trying to make it right. It’s gossip and exposure, but maybe not the kind you want at this point in your career. You don’t have the momentum to carry that off yet.”
That startled me. She didn’t curse much, so the swear word in the middle of her thoughtful analysis shocked me. But also the idea that I might have to ask Lew to wait to get married, to have the baby without the social protection of a husband that omegas still seemed to need so badly, in order to salvage my career. I’d already done something like that to him once before—I wasn’t going to get a third chance.
I shook my head at her. “If that’s what he wants, a quick wedding right away, I’m still doing it. It’s your job to figure out how to spin it. That’s what I pay you for.”
She twitched and then smiled at me. No, grinned, a wide flash of teeth and approval. “Now you’re starting to sound like an A-lister. Don’t worry, I can make this work. But it would be easier if you guys could wait.”
“I’ll see what he says,” was the only thing I could tell her. I wasn’t even sure I was telling her the truth, because the thought of telling Lew I wanted him to play second banana to my career again made my palms sweat and my heart race with anxiety.
“All right. Let me know as soon as you come to a decision.” She shouldered her bag, dropped a casual kiss on my cheek, and breezed away from the table.
I shook my head and left, back to finish the last scheduled scene of the day, then home to talk to Lew and figure out what we were going to do.
